The Dyslexic Advantage (32 page)

 

Test Practice and Preparation.
Students who are unfamiliar with test procedures and exam question formats may experience confusion and make mistakes during the high-pressure testing situation, so students with dyslexia often benefit from taking practice tests in advance. Learning appropriate testing strategies and becoming familiar with the types of questions asked (and the types of words contained in the different questions) are usually well worth the effort. Because these admissions tests can be retaken, it's best not to wait until the last available date to take them for the first time, so that if necessary there will be enough time to sit for them again.

College presents special challenges for students with dyslexia. Factors that can make college many times more challenging than high school include:

Many students with dyslexia find the first two years of college the most difficult. During these years they must often take classes that don't match well with their strengths or interests, for reasons we described above.

The flip side is that most students with dyslexia find that when they get through the first two years of college and into their major focus, they begin to do much better. That's why students with dyslexia must do everything in their power to avoid letting 100- and 200-level courses—especially in areas outside their major—scuttle their chances to reach the stages of education where they're most likely to shine.

 

Selecting Courses.
Careful course selection is the first key to surviving the early years of college. Students with dyslexia should carefully investigate all potential courses in advance to ensure a good fit. The better the course matches their strengths and interests, the greater their likelihood of success.

The first important factor to keep in mind is
the nature of the subject.
Is it interesting enough to provoke the necessary motivation? Is it well suited to the student's thinking strengths—including the student's MIND strengths? Does it focus on big-picture information or fine details? Does it stress the comprehension and application of concepts or principles, or the memorization and regurgitation of rote facts? Does it present information as an unfolding story or as part of a large interconnected system, or does it simply present lots of pieces of data with little attempt to tie them together?

As we've mentioned, the brains of individuals with dyslexia are often specialized to excel in big-picture reasoning rather than mastery of fine details, so looking for subjects that stress general concepts rather than precise details or memorizing minutiae can be important. For example, micro- and macroeconomics differ profoundly on this point, as do history classes that accentuate dates, times, treaties, names, etc., and those that stress the theory of history or political science. Also, inorganic chemistry—which requires a lot of bookkeeping to follow the recombination of elements and nuclei—differs greatly from organic chemistry, which leans heavily upon spatial reasoning. Students with dyslexia may also excel in courses that study complex, dynamic systems, as they involve a great deal of feedback, ambiguity, and uncertainty and require problem solving, prediction, and best-fit reasoning.

Even when subjects are a good fit, the instructor's approach may make certain courses unsuitable for students with dyslexia. Some college teachers can turn an apparently big-picture subject into a fine-detail course, so students should investigate whether an instructor has taught a particular course before and, if so, what her or his approach to teaching is. Students can also check out the ratings and descriptions of many professors at websites like Rate My Professors (
www.ratemyprofessors.com
).

A student's investigation into previous courses can also provide information about
the clarity and organization of the instructor
, which is a second key factor
.
A course may seem to match a student's interests and aptitudes well but still be a poor fit if the instructor presents the information in a way that doesn't match the student's needs. When students struggle with organization, taking notes, or learning from lectures, then they have to rely on the clarity and organization of the instructor to ensure that they'll have access to all the important information.

This touches on the third key factor, which is
the format in which the important information is presented.
This includes the nature of the reading list (e.g., how many books or pages are required for a course, what style and how clearly written the works are, and whether—if necessary—they are available on tape or digitally formatted for text-to-speech players) and the availability of resources like syllabi, note services, podcasts, or videos that contain all the information on which the student will be assessed. For students who struggle with taking notes or with auditory attention, these are especially important considerations.

A fourth key factor is
the manner in which students are assessed and graded.
Finding courses with an assessment format that matches students' strengths is critical. Students differ in their preference for oral presentations, practical projects, written papers, multiple-choice tests, essay exams, or classroom participation and discussion. Students can master information but still fail a course if the assessment mechanism doesn't allow them to express what they know.

A fifth factor is
the instructor's attitude toward accommodations and dyslexia.
Checking with the student disabilities office and speaking directly with the prospective instructors can provide a good feel for how an instructor regards and treats students with dyslexia. Unfortunately, instructors can differ dramatically in this regard.

The sixth and final factor is
your personal passion for the subject.
The added motivation that comes from focusing on a topic you find stimulating and enjoyable is essential when college work gets challenging. When you truly love a topic so much that you can give yourself wholly to it, it can also change you in wonderful ways. A clear example of how such a passionate commitment to a single subject transformed a struggling student is provided by speech professor Duane Smith.

“Prior to discovering speech and public speaking competitions, I'd never focused on anything in my life—because I'd never had a reason to focus on anything.” This lack of mental focus was apparent in my writing. When I was first starting to enjoy some success on the speech team, I gave a first draft of a speech to the team's director, and I was shocked when he chewed me out. He told me, ‘There's not a complete sentence in this speech, and there's no structure. You might look good in front of an audience, but that will only get you so far if you can't structure your thoughts properly on paper.' He was very hard on me because he saw that I was trying to get by on style and wasn't working hard, but he knew that I wouldn't get much farther without really focusing and buckling down to work. That made a huge impression on me because several universities had offered me scholarships, but my coach said, ‘If those schools knew your GPA, they wouldn't be talking about scholarships. You need at least a 3.0.' Now, I'd been an academic failure my whole life, and I
really
wanted to be able to tell myself that I got a full academic scholarship—and I
really
wanted to be able to tell that to my parents—so I thought, ‘Wow, I'd better start going to class and focusing on things and doing what the teachers say.' It was a struggle, but I did it. And I raised my GPA, and I ended up getting a full scholarship for public speaking.

“So in the end, it was really public speaking that made me organized. The structure and discipline demanded in competitive speaking were applicable to everything else in life.”

 

Taking on Too Much: The Risks of Overcompensation.
One problem that many students with dyslexia succumb to in college is overcompensation. Blake Charlton described the pattern he fell into in college. “When I got to Yale, I was sure I didn't belong there and that I was going to fail out, so I overcompensated in spades. I almost never left the library, and I was in a regular state of panic. Even when I was elected to Phi Beta Kappa—actually, even after they gave me the diploma—I still had dreams for a long time that there was another test I'd forgotten.”

Ben Foss described a similar pattern of overcompensation, but in his case it led to overcommitment outside the classroom. “In college I struggled so badly at the core academic activities, which are reading and writing, that I needed other places to be successful.” So I ended up on the student affairs committee and the student magazine and in an after-school program for kids and doing fund-raising for the AIDS organization; and while from the outside I looked like ‘Mr. Man-about-Campus,' I was really feeling isolated and lonely, and I was using all these activities as a way to replenish my self-image. With dyslexia there's such a thirst because all through your early years of school it's like you're in the desert and you're parched with your thirst for success, while everyone else is walking around with CamelBaks of Gatorade in terms of praise. So when you finally get to a place where you can actually get some water, you just drink and drink and drink to the point where you may actually drink more than you really should.

“Even after college I did the same thing: I did a joint law and business degree at Stanford, and from the outside it was like, ‘Wow, a J.D./M.B.A. from Stanford—you must have had no problem'; but really just the opposite was true. I had such a problem with the first year of law school that it literally put me in the hospital. I was carrying around my tape player and my books, and I was sitting in the library fourteen hours a day trying to keep up, and it literally broke me. I ruptured my 4-5 lumbar disc, but even then I kept going to class and I just didn't stop because I had this mentality that you just don't quit. I ended up working myself into the hospital and suffering so much nerve damage that I still can't feel my left foot. So in the end the answer can't just be working harder; it has to be working smarter. Like a guy in a wheelchair, you can't be dragging yourself upstairs by the elbows; you need to be using the ramp.”

 

If at First You Don't Succeed.
Many students with dyslexia who eventually succeed in college struggle at first, so by no means does initial failure equal ultimate failure. Many highly successful individuals with dyslexia succeeded in college only after several attempts or after transferring to another school that better fit their needs. Many students also do better if they take some time off coming out of high school to mature or further prepare. Ultimately, if an individual with dyslexia is committed to earning a college degree, there's no reason why—with careful planning, strategy, and persistence—this should remain beyond reach.

Thriving in the Workplace

F
or individuals with dyslexia, opportunities to thrive in the workplace are now more plentiful than ever. Advances in technology have made it easier for individuals with dyslexia to access printed information, express their ideas in writing, and remain organized and on schedule. With self-understanding, self-advocacy, support, persistence, and careful planning, individuals with dyslexia can confidently pursue any occupation for which their interests and abilities otherwise suit them.